Begin Again
by Geek Without Glasses
Summary: I've been spending the last eight months thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end.


Silena took a deep breath as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Natural makeup, light pink a-line skirt, cream coloured blouse, sparkly pumps. It had become a habit to wear heels on her dates, it annoyed Charlie just the right amount to seem flirty. She sprayed a bit of perfume, put her headphones on, and walked to the woods, where Beckendorf was waiting.

Her favourite song was playing, the one Charlie always said he didn't understand. Of course he didn't, he liked metal, country, and rock, whereas Silena loved listening to love songs.

She arrived at the spot Charlie had told her to go, and, to her astonishment, found him waiting. One thing Silena knew for sure, Beckendorf was not a very prudent person. Just the fact that he was not only on time, but early, meant the world to her.

He stood up from the chair he was sitting on, how he'd managed to get two chairs and a beautiful little metal table to such a remote location, she had no idea. Silena waved, and he waved back, a smile on his face that could only be brought on by one thing- love.

Charlie pulled out the chair opposite the one he'd been using, and gestured for her to sit down. Silena couldn't help but notice how nice that was of him, being such a gentleman.

They made small talk for a few minutes, until the subject of the Stolls came up. Silena ended up telling him the story of the golden mango. He managed to make it to the part with last season's Gucci flying out the window, before throwing back his head and laughing like a little kid. Silena joined him.

"You know about my cabin's rite of passage, right?" She asked. He shook his head. "It's tradition for children of Aphrodite to make a person fall in love with them, only to break their heart once they're head over heels."

"Well, maybe you're different."

* * *

Sitting in his cabin, Silena noticed little things. The way his lip curved when he smiled, the scar above his eyebrow, even the sparkle in his eye that she'd come to love.

Somehow, the two of them ended up talking about music.

"Well, I love James Taylor," Silena said "he's amazing."

"No way! He's one of my favourites, especially Hour That The Morning Comes."

"You really are joking, right." Silena exclaimed incredulously "Thats my absolute favourite!"

Throughout their day, Silena learned that they had a lot more in common than just music taste. Both loved cinnamon buns, brownies, and cauliflower (which surprised Silena more than anything), she'd thought she was the only one in the world who loved the albino broccoli. She now knew more about him than she had ever known about any other boy.

She would've enjoyed herself completely, if not for the nagging thought in the back of her mind, she'd have to break his heart, one way or another. As the counsellor for the Aphrodite cabin, it was her job to enforce this rule on her siblings, she couldn't just ignore it.

Maybe it was the way he smiled, or that twinkle in his eye, but she decided. Silena Beauregard was not like the rest, she would restore honour to the house of Aphrodite, and would not let some stupid rite of passage get in the way of true love.

* * *

Christmas was fast approaching, and Silena was busier than ever. Even though it was a Christian holiday, the campers still celebrated by exchanging gifts, hanging stockings, drinking eggnog, and telling tales of Christmas back home.

But, for the senior campers, the holiday season meant a lot more than just enjoying some time off, every year, they were tasked with the job of what they called the "Santa Program", which was basically a living hell for them, but it all paid off on Christmas morning, when the campers who still believed in Santa opened up their gifts. This year, there were less "clients" than usual, they were all forced to grow up too fast, worrying about the war instead of what to put in their letter to the man in red.

In previous years, there had been upwards at twenty kids to find gifts for, but this year they were down to five. Only Harley from Hephaestus, Kayla from Apollo, Lacy from Aphrodite, Percy, and Clovis remained on the list.

Why Percy still believed in Santa, Silena had no idea. The only conclusion she could come up with as to why a kid her age would still believe was that he legitimately had a head filled with kelp.

"You busy?" A gruff voice snapped her out of her trance. Looking up, she realized it was Charlie.

"No, I'm free."

He dragged her down to the amphitheatre, which was empty at this time of day. They sat down next to each other on the well worn wood of the bleachers, bundled up in coats and scarves, Silena could see their breath forming clouds against the clear sky.

Snuggled up to Charlie's chest, she asked him "Why did we come here, campfire doesn't start for a few hours."

"I know, I just figured we could use some alone time. You know, we haven't gotten any real time to talk in over a week."

And so talk they did, for hours, and hours. They missed dinner, and only stopped when the others started to arrive for the holiday song-along.

In those few short hours, Silena learned more about Charlie's family than she'd ever hoped to know. His mom was a mechanic who took care of her father, who had a lung disease. Charles had decided to stay at camp to make her minimum wage life a little easier. They'd also talked about their siblings. Silena didn't spend too much time explaining her situation, Charlie already knew just about everything a person needed to know about children of Aphrodite. But his siblings, they were interesting. His relationship with Nyssa was more one of full than half-siblings. They argued like any normal brother and sister would. Except their arguments normally involved hydraulics and monkey wrenches.

Jake was basically his best friend, the two of them had arrived at camp the same summer, and both stayed year round, although they came from two very different backgrounds. Charlie had a great family, no matter how small it was, they loved him, and he loved them, just the way it was supposed to be. Jake had come from a large family, and was the youngest of nine kids, and considered an "accident". He'd spent the first thirteen years of his life being abused not only by his mother and step-father, but his siblings as well. Charlie said that he'd been forced to live in a room no bigger than a broom closet, even though his mom owned a mansion.

Harley was the most interesting though. Everyone already knew that he was the youngest demigod to attend camp in centuries, but very few knew the reason he'd been three the first time he'd crossed the boundary line. His mom had been hit by a drunk driver when he was just two, and in the hospital, in her state of painkiller induced delirium, she'd revealed the truth of Harley's father to him prematurely, and his scent became strong enough to attract two hellhounds. If it weren't for his satyr babysitter, the poor boy would've been killed right after his mother died before his eyes in her hospital bed.

Because he'd been so young when he came to camp, Harley immediately claimed Charlie as his "dad", and Charles had been more than happy to accept the title. But Silena found it unfair that such an adorable kid had had to grow up parentless. Hephaestus had never so much as visited him, and although that was standard protocol for demigods, Silena found it really unfair considering his circumstance.

But his siblings, along with Chiron's help, had managed to give him a pretty amazing childhood. They threw a huge party, with the entire camp invited every year for his birthday, Jake had made sure he could name every Transformer to ever exist by the time he was six, Nyssa taught him how to make his own toys, and Silena had even caught Chiron sneaking him extra dessert on several occasions.

Charlie explained the Christmas traditions his cabin had. They all made one another gifts in the forge, and he said his second favourite part of the season was watching Harley open his gifts, beat only by the movie marathons they had every Christmas Eve, which often ended up as contests of who could stay up the latest, which always ended with Jake and Shane pulling all-nighters, with everyone else crashed on the cabin's couches.

Silena longed for her siblings to be like that. To be more than just a group to gossip about the latest trends with, she longed to have a real family, people she had a real bond with.

As the rest of the camp arrived for the sing-along, she could picture it in her head, she could see it begin again.

**AN: So, it's been a while. I'm sorry for not updating any of my old fics, but I've been suffering from extreme writers block, but now that this is finally published, I should be able to spend more time on them.**

**Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing. All characters belong to Uncle Rick and the plot is based on Begin Again by Taylor Swift.**


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